11THE MOUNTLEISURE

Semptember, 2015

This summer brought the most anticipated concert of the year. Nothing during those dog days had more hype than this. 3 days, 22 top named artists, 1 location. Grassroots Music Festival, a three day party, hosted at River’s Edge Park from July 31- June 2. Nothing can go wrong… Whenever the words “nothing can go wrong” are said, something bad is bound to happen. Grassroots was set up to be the biggest success of Tommy O’Gorman’s career, all he had to do was make it through the weekend. O’Gorman, a 19-year-old freshman at UNO, not only was an executive for the festival, but also was its founder. Most 19-year-olds in Nebraska have small, part time jobs just to get enough money to make it through freshman year of college. O’Gorman, coming from a wealthy family, was different. Since he had the money, O’Gorman just wanted to see some of his favorite artists live. So that is what he did. Not many can say that they’re a millionaire as a freshman in col-lege. Needless to say, O’Gorman had the op-portunity to make this festival one for the ages. Most of headline artists, portrayed in all the ads, were very prominent to the Omaha/Coun-cil Bluffs area. Other artists got a chance to show fans what they were like live. A hip hop artist who is very popular on the East Coast, but not to the Midwest, Logic. Unless you look him up, he is almost unheard of in Nebraska. The debut of Logic in the Omaha metro area could not have gone better. Fans got to see what kind of artist he is, a storyteller from a messed up family who just wants to talk about what ac-tually happens in the world. Listening to his

songs live captures the pain and struggle he went through growing up, and although most in the Omaha area cannot relate to that, the crowd felt for him and was inspired. However, Logic was supposed to follow one of the hottest artists of the summer: Fetty Wap. Known for his simplistic lyrics and captivating chorus, despite a lot of his songs sounding simi-lar, no one seems to care to scream out those all too familiar lyrics. From his first single “Trap Queen” to his summer jams like “679” or “Again,” Fetty Wap’s presence has been begged by fans all over. When the festival announced that Fetty Wap was not coming, fans became infuriated and started tweeting, taking it out on the artist. Little did those people know, that Fetty Wap had never been talked to about com-ing to the festival. The question arises whether he was put on the lineup just to sell more tickets or what the actual problem was. Before getting in the actual festival, fans had to wait in line. It was to be expected that there would be a line, but the size of the one at Grass-roots in particular was outrageous. Luckily, Matthew Dugick and I saw a group of friends so we cut 3/4 of the line, yet we still waited an hour and a half. Some people were not as pa-tient as us, so by the time it hit about 7 p.m., fences were being pushed down, and the hill was full of charging people trying to get inside. The Grassroots security could handle ten or maybe fifteen people, but when at least 50 to 75 bust through, the staff had no clue what to do. Some slower runners were caught by angered staff members, but most made it to the stage area.

With River’s Edge Park packed, the closing act, Kid Cudi, was ready to take the stage. Cudi captivates audiences in a way that takes the a mind to another place. His sound flows out of the speakers and hits the crowd like a wave of the ocean. Cudi, however, did not start out with those classic songs, instead he wanted to pump out songs from his new album. As an artist, that was a risky move. The album was released a week before his appearance, to mixed reviews. Fans had to wait in agony until the fifth song came on, and finally it was a classic hit. The title of the song is “Soundtrack to My Life,” and that is how most people take it. They use his artistic flow and amazing diction to relate to the song and have it become a part of them. Cudi went on to continue playing classics and ended up, in some opinions, as the best performance of the day, and in others, the worst. The two days to follow was same story with a different script. Day two consisted of an out-reach to the older audience. It brought back bal-lads from the 80’s when most of the fans that day were living. It gave them a chance to re-live the glory days and reminisce in their youth. Day three was the same story as the first, anoth-er headline dropped from the lineup. This time the artist was Schoolboy Q, which was the most anticipated artist on the third day. Although Schoolboy Q did not comment on why he could not make it, fans were clearly upset. When the news was announced that he would not be mak-ing it, the audience visibly sank. That emotion buildup described the fans’ experience for the whole festival. Tons of hype leading to disap-pointment.

You’ve all probably heard some terrible things about the new Fantastic 4 film. But in all hon-esty, I watched the first 45 minutes, and it was much better than I expected. Then I realized that I had accidently shown up an hour early and the projector wasn’t turned on. It all went downhill from there. For starters, it was one of the most bor-ing movies I have seen in years. If you’re look-ing for some-thing with a little more ac-tion, I would suggest Lin-coln starring Daniel Day Lewis. They spent the en-tire movie do-ing backstory, then skipping the parts we actually want to see, like the characters discovering and develop-ing their pow-ers. It all led up to a final fight which would have saved the whole movie, had it not been ten minutes long. If you thought the final battle of Twilight was disappointing, this was worse. And the Twilight battle didn’t even happen. All jokes aside, I have seen better character development in extras. The protagonists got the bare minimum of development. Except for two of them, who had scenes at the very begin-ning as children. And the children who played them had apparently never acted before in their lives. Now I don’t have anything against child actors, besides the fact that they’re always ter-rible. Most of the actors were well chosen, and the characters didn’t look too bad. Except for

The summer blockbuster Jurassic World was a huge hit, but not for the reasons that usually make movies great. This film had a few fac-tors going for it that would have made it a hit no matter how good or bad the actual movie was. Worldwide, it has made over $1.6 billion to date. On its opening weekend alone, it made $208 million in box office sales, making it the biggest weekend in box office sales for a movie ever. Even with the IMDb rating of 7.3, it was still known as an instant classic. This was be-cause of two factors: the star-studded cast and the Jurassic Park franchise. The cast of this movie was one of the con-tributing factors to its success and it drew many viewers to the theater. Chris Pratt, who plays the role of Owen Grady, is one of the most popular movie stars right now. He gained fame from his roles in Parks and Recreation, Zero Dark Thirty, and, more recently, Guardians of the Galaxy. Since these roles, he has exploded into the most memorable actor in Jurassic World. The Pratt obsession contributed greatly to the box office success of the movie. Another appearance in the movie that added inter-est was the cameo of late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon. Even though it was a short cameo in a small part of the movie, it certainly got people talking. It also occurs before a very intense part of the movie, so when people think of the action scene, they think of Jimmy Fallon. The other big reason for Jurassic World’s success is the Jurassic Park franchise. All three of the movies in this series were be-loved by all 93’ moviegoer. In fact, Jurassic Park is well known as one of the greatest ac-tion thrillers in movie history. Steven Spiel-berg, an all-time greatest director, directed the first and second Jurassic Park movies, giving the franchise a great base to be suc-cessful. The plot is almost always the same, but the action of the movie still draws viewers. First, a genetically engineered dinosaur gets loose from its containment, runs wild and kills other dinosaurs and people. Then, it is up to the main characters to capture or

kill the escaped killer dinosaur and save the other people. Everyone knows the story, but each movie in the series draws new interest as to how the characters will go about doing this. The mystery with which dinosaur will escape, how many it will kill, and how the protagonists defeat it is the main factor that draws viewers to the theater. Jurassic World turned into the most success-ful box office movie to date, and became the most watched movie of the summer. Its action and intense scenes called people to the theater, in addition to the great cast and well-established franchise. This movie had everything going for it, and certainly lived up to the hype. The ac-tion, adventure, and fighting scenes allowed it to appeal to more violence-interested viewers, and there was even and underlying love story to appeal to more romantic viewers. It appealed to everyone in theaters, and made all of its viewers greatly enjoy the movie

Doctor Doom, who could only be described as silly. Imagine Hannibal Lecter with a bowl over his head. The worst part about this movie is that it’s bad no matter which way you look at it. Some-

times, when you hear a movie is bad before you go, you can walk into the theater intending to watch it like a comedy. For exam-ple, Trans-f o r m e r s : Age of Ex-tinction was so incred-ibly ridicu-lous that it was laugh-able. Other times, you can simply see a movie for the ac-tion instead of the plot. I took this route with Mad Max: Fury Road, and it defi-nitely paid

off. It was at least 10 times better than this bland Marvel remake. In fact, according to Rotten To-matoes, it is a dominating 12.25 times better. But this movie had no action, outdated CGI, an overly complex plot, and an ending that was a textbook definition of “anti-climactic.” You just can’t look at it from any angle to put it in good light. But honestly, what can you expect from a movie that was created so Fox didn’t lose its rights to the franchise? That’s right, the only reason this atrocity was produced is because Fox is legally obligated to release a Fantastic Four movie every couple of years. Otherwise, the rights go back to Marvel who might (God forbid) make a good Fantastic 4 film.

Alex’s Top Songs of September

graphic by Alex Miklas

Fantastic ‘Bore’Leo McGrath | Copy Editor

Jurrasic World : Box Office MonsterBen Murray | Assistant Online Editor

Grassroots RevisitedAlex Miklas | Comentary/Leisure Editor

graohic by Leo McGrath

photo courtesy of screenrat.com